A rally on the steps of Victorian Parliament has heard personal accounts of incarceration and fears for the future as the state government tabled further bail reforms inside on Wednesday.

National Indigenous Times has previously reported on the proposals and additions to the state's bail laws, amendments the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service has warned "will inevitably result in more Aboriginal deaths in custody".

Victoria's Attorney General tabled a statement of compatibility to the Bail Further Amendment Bill 2025 in Parliament on Wednesday morning.

A snap rally slamming the proposed changes gathered outside.

"Bail saves lives," Aunty Vickie Roach told a gathering on the steps of Parliament.

"I've been in and out of jail since I was 17 years old, and the number of women I've seen die because they didn't get bail is horrendous."

In 2007, while incarcerated at Melbourne's Dame Phyllis Frost Centre women's prison, Aunty Vickie helped overturn federal legislation introduced in 2006 which prevented prisoners serving sentences under three years from voting in federal elections.

She also presented evidence to the coronial inquest into the death of Yorta Yorta, Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung and Wiradjuri woman Veronica Nelson.

"We need to throw reforms out," Aunty Vickie added, also calling for de-carceration, and prison abolition.

Speakers alongside Aunty Vicki included Legalise Cannabis Victoria MP Rachel Payne, Law & Advocacy Centre for Women chief executive Elena Pappas, and a statement read on behalf of federal Senator Lidia Thorpe.

Calls for the adoption of 'Poccum's Law', a proposed blueprint to bail reform and named in honour of Veronica Nelson, were heard throughout.

Senator Thorpe wrote bail "crackdowns" target "our kids, and black and brown young people from migrant backgrounds".

"Locking up our children only causes harm. It disconnects them from family, culture and Country, and the denial of bail is driving the over incarceration of First Peoples, including our kids," her statement read.

"We know that harsh punishments don't make our communities safer."

Senator Thorpe's statement was read by Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service director of legal services Ali Besiroglu.

"The reality is that when the Aboriginal people are in prisons, the number one risk to them is dying in custody. That is a problem," Mr Besiroglu told National Indigenous Times.

"We need to keep Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people out of prisons. We need to invest in justice reinvestment, in supports that ensure that we're addressing the underlying causes of offending as distinct from just out of sight, out of mind, policies and locking people away.

"We (VALS) believe that there is a loud minority group which has been able to convince this government that locking people up is going to make communities safer, but we're here to say that that is not correct," he added, "locking people up is actually going to result in worse outcomes in in more unsafe and dangerous communities, because the underlying causes of offending are not addressed".

VALS "haven't been able to get through" to the government, Mr Besiroglu said, despite prolonged attempts to spur change.

VALS' board member and Black deaths in custody family support service Dhadjowa Foundation founder Apryl Day, whose mother died in custody in 2017, said it was a shame "we are here today still having these basic conversations about how to keep Aboriginal people alive".

"The (1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody) didn't just identify this issue as we know. They handed down 339 recommendations into the Aboriginal deaths in custody, and that was a pretty basic and practical road map for the government to ensure that our people stop dying in custody," Ms Day told the rally.

Speaking on 3AW Radio on Wednesday afternoon, Victorian Attorney General Sonya Kilkenny said the state has "the toughest bail test in the nation", stating the proposals were focused on repeat offenders of "serious" crimes.

"What we've done is introduced the first bill, we've made changes to the laws. We're seeing those work already," Ms Kilkenny said.

The Attorney General noted the increase in numbers of people on remand, both adults and young people, since in the previous amendments were passed in March.

"And now we're going further...what we are doing today is introducing the second tranche of bail changes that are going to make it even tougher for people to get bail if they are re offending in our communities," she said.

National Indigenous Times has previously reported strict bail requirements have resulted in more than 90 per cent of Aboriginal children in the justice system being denied bail in New South Wales.

The second sweep of proposed bail law changes in Victoria risk undoing previous progress made, Mr Besiroglu told National Indigenous Times, and an "explosion" in remand.

Parliamentary debate on the amendments bill has been adjourned until Wednesday 13 August.